This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Looking for Oscar clues in the glittering Golden Globes

The Academy Awards can’t be directly influenced by Sunday night’s Golden Globes — nomination ballots for the Feb. 28 Oscars were due two days earlier — but the show is something of a bellwether anyway.

Brie Larson, star of the Irish-Canadian coproduction Room, arriving on the red carpet Sunday before the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills. Larson went on to win Best Actress in a Drama. (MARIO ANZUONI / REUTERS)

The Academy Awards can’t be directly influenced by Sunday night’s Golden Globes — nomination ballots for the Feb. 28 Oscars were due two days earlier — but the show is something of a bellwether anyway.

It indicates momentum (or the reverse) for movies and talent that will be shining brightly come Thursday morning, when nominations for the 88th Academy Awards are announced.

The Globes complicate punditry by doubling up on the awards for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress, giving prizes both for drama and comedy/musical categories. But trends emerge regardless, even if it’s just narrowing down the field of the eventual top Oscar rivals — an especially useful thing this year, where there are few obvious winners or clear patterns.

The night’s big winner of both hardware and Oscar mojo was The Revenant, with three major prizes: picture (drama), director and actor (drama).

Here’s how prospects for the top six Oscar categories look post-Golden Globes:

Article Continued Below

Best Picture

“Comedy?” said a skeptical but happy The Martian director/producer Ridley Scott, as he accepted the comedy/musical prize for his outer space adventure. A win’s a win, even if the category placement was strange for this survival drama, and The Martian is sure to be included in Oscar noms.

The night’s most important prize, though, was the dramatic winner The Revenant, the wilderness survival saga that nearly topped Star Wars: The Force Awakens this past weekend at the North American box office, and which now has vastly improved Oscar odds. The Revenant leapt over dramatic rivals Carol, Room, Spotlight and Mad Max: Fury Road, but a rematch is likely at the Oscars.

Best Director

A big win for The Revenant’s Alejandro G. Iñárritu, last year’s Oscar winner for Birdman. His Globes rivals, likely the same lineup for the Oscars, were Todd Haynes (Carol), Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Ridley Scott (The Martian), all of whom had a strong chance of winning. Many pundits thought Scott would triumph, if only as a lifetime achievement prize for a stellar career.

But Iñárritu triumphed over adversity, just like his cast and crew did making their frostbitten epic. And he already has a quotable line ready for the Oscars: “Pain is temporary, but a film is forever.”

Best Actor

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s odd decision to nominate rescue drama The Martian in its comedy/musical categories helped avoid a problem that will likely soon be facing Oscar voters: whether to honour The Martian’s Matt Damon or The Revenant’s Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor.

The HFPA simply lauded both actors: Damon for comedy for his cheerworthy turn as a stranded astronaut, and DiCaprio for drama as an abandoned 19th-century woodsman fighting for survival — and revenge.

Damon beat the double threat of The Big Short’s Christian Bale and Steve Carell, who likely cancelled each other out. He declared himself lucky to be an actor and to have a hit film: “I’ve made a lot of movies that people just didn’t go and see.’’

DiCaprio looked like he was rehearsing his speech for his expected eventual Oscar win, including a shout-out to his co-star Tom Hardy: “I know in real life he’d never bury me alive and leave me to die out in the cold like that.”

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence might just be the favourite thespian of all for the HFPA members. She notched her third Globe win in four attempts, this time Best Actress in the comedy/musical category for playing the title striver in David O. Russell’s bootstraps biopic Joy. No surprise here.

Lawrence might also nab an Oscar nomination for the same role, but Joy’s overall Academy prospects aren’t great. The more likely pick for Academy gold is Brie Larson for the Irish-Canadian hostage drama Room, confirming a lead she’s long held in Oscar industry polls. Looks like Carol co-stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara cancelled each other out, and tough luck for Brooklyn’s Saoirse Ronan, possibly Larson’s biggest Oscar rival.

Best Supporting Actor

A knockout win by Sylvester Stallone for boxing sequel Creed. He’s this year’s Comeback Kid, finally nabbing major gold for the Rocky Balboa character that first brought him to awards shows in 1977.

Stallone’s Academy chances soar as a result of this win, although he still has to fend off such formidable likely Oscar competitors as Mark Rylance from Bridge of Spies, Idris Elba from Beasts of No Nation and Paul Dano from Love & Mercy.

The big lug looked like he might cry, even though he vowed not to get emotional.

Best Supporting Actress

Kate Winslet declared herself “extremely surprised and overwhelmed” to win for Apple icon biopic Steve Jobs, and she seemed believable — although she’s also a great actress. She’d been deemed worthy of awards consideration all season, even as awards prospects for her movie faded along with its box-office receipts.

Yet Winslet’s win was truly a surprise, since few pundits saw her as the likely winner over her perceived main Oscar challengers: Helen Mirren for Trumbo,Alicia Vikander for Ex Machina (although more likely The Danish Girl for the Academy)andJane Fonda for Youth.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com